


One Year

by GealachGirl



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Anniversaries, Christmas, Comfort, Decorating, Fluff, Generation Kill Week, Generation Kill holidays, M/M, semi-sappy fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:26:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13052130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GealachGirl/pseuds/GealachGirl
Summary: Nate and Evan have to decorate for their Christmas party, but time got in the way again. Oh and their anniversary is coming up, too.





	One Year

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I'm late. I meant to post it on time and I technically had it done, but time got in my way.

Getting the boxes out of the basement closet was a little more work than either of them had anticipated. And sorting through the boxes was a lot more work because apparently they hadn’t thought to label them. But Nate and Evan were on their way to getting the house decorated nonetheless.

“Where did this come from?” Evan asked, holding up a menorah ornament. It was glass and tinted blue and white, and Evan could have sworn he’d never seen it before. The box it came from had other Hanukah-themed decorations in it and it was at the top of a plain cardboard box, so it had to be newer than the others.

Nate twisted around in the other room where he was pinning garland to the staircase. “Oh, Ray gave me those in September. He told me we had to be sensitive about Brad being Jewish.” There was a wry smile on his face as he looked at the ornament.

“This isn’t even a Christmas party,” Evan pointed out. “And wasn’t it Ray’s idea anyway?”

Nate just shook his head and went back to the garland, but Evan could see the smile playing around his mouth, like it often did when Ray was involved.

Evan put it on the tree and pulled a Star of David ornament out of the box. Across the room, Nate suddenly sighed, rough and frustrated.

“This is going to take forever. Why did we wait so long?”

Evan looked over to see Nate staring around the bare entryway with the garland the only decoration so far. The tree was still mostly empty and the box of ornaments was getting low, but Nate still wanted to fill the rest of the living room and see if they could do something for the kitchen. And for the first time Evan noticed the tension in Nate’s back.

“Well you’ve been busy with tests and papers, and I’ve been working late to meet deadlines,” Evan said.

Nate shook his head, frowning, like he was looking for another answer. 

"We just got started," Evan tried again. Their friends couldn't expect too much from this, and the only reason Evan and Nate were hosting was because they had the space. But the party wasn’t for a few hours, so they definitely had time to do what they could to decorate the front of the house.

But when he looked closer, Evan saw there was something else going on. Something about Nate's expectations. The wheels were turning the thoughts in Nate's head and Evan watched while he put another ornament on the tree. Nate would probably talk on his own, but he was always ready to prompt it.

"You know this will be our first anniversary, right?" Nate asked, handily dodging the real issue while he looked at the bare furniture and doorways.

Because of course Evan knew it had almost been a year. 

Last New Years' Eve, there had been a party, and a lot of alcohol, and someone's convenient back porch where the air wasn't as hot as it was inside. It was where Evan had found himself when Nate, slightly tipsy, wandered outside, saw him there and lit up like the holiday decorations in the windows. Then he'd taken a deep breath and said, "I think I like you a lot more than everyone else."

Nate was clearly reliving the memory, too. And now there was a deeper crease between his eyebrows. 

The past couple of months had been busy in general, but with Nate's grad school and the year-end deadlines Evan had to deal with it had seemed like a lot more had happened than it really had. Which probably really was the reason they were decorating only hours before their holiday party. 

He knew Nate was feeling behind on everything, but he didn’t realize it was this bad.

"Hey," Evan said, getting off of the floor and joining Nate in the entryway. "We don't have to do everything, and we still have plenty of time for it. And even if we don't get this place looking like a magazine cover, it'll be fine." Evan knew Nate didn't need to hear that none of their friends would care. This wasn't about them.

So he swallowed his inner cynic that rebelled against sentimentality, smiled, and added. "Because it's ours.”

And he broke through. 

Evan had learned how to read people because journalism was all about asking the right questions the right way. But, for him, Nate was easy. Easier than others at least. 

After Nate's confession on the porch Evan had been quick to return the gesture, and everything had been a breeze since. They argued occasionally, but it never lasted long and they were always on the same page otherwise, though there were some habits they couldn’t adapt to (Evan didn’t mind exercise, but he would never go on a run at 5 a.m.).

But he was perpetually surprised by just how much he liked Nate Fick and loved being around him. He never got sick of it.

This half-dazed smile and the confident spark in his eyes was another thing. Evan took a moment while the truth sank in to press a kiss to the side of Nate’s overworked head.

“You’re right,” he acknowledged, looking again at the space to be decorated. The wheels were turning again, making forward progress this time, and Evan stepped away with his job done for now.

**************************

When they finished, the house still didn't look like a magazine cover. There were still bare spots in the living room and the front hall, and they'd never gotten to the kitchen. But it was all fun. 

Eventually, Nate got sick of hanging the tinsel, so he decided to drape it over Evan while he untangled the lights for the tree. When he was done with that, Evan wrapped the rest around Nate’s shoulders; and then they'd decided to turn the tree around to hide the limited number of ornaments—with Ray's taking up most of the room.

Then the hooks they bought for the other lights didn't stay on the wall around the doorway, so Evan pulled out the zip ties and packing tape, and added the extra pieces to Nate’s face while he put batteries in the electric candles.

And the whole time they made fun of each other and the fact that everything was improvised. 

"You know I'm not sure this could have turned out better," Nate said when he put the light-up snowman on the kitchen island.

"Oh yeah?" Evan asked, setting up for the joke while he dug in a cupboard for an extension cord. But then he looked up to see the calm, quiet expression on Nate's face. He was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed, and the wheels were still, so he looked satisfied as he surveyed the decorations.

Nate turned his eyes to him. “We put it all together,” he said and smiled. “And I figure we’ll fill in the rest over time.”

“Oh, that’s your plan?” Something inside him thrilled at the idea, and Evan beamed and stood up to lean across from Nate. They didn’t really talk about it much, because there wasn’t really a reason, but Evan was happy to hear Nate felt the same way.

Nate kissed him in answer, and took Evan’s hand when he pulled back.

“Thanks for talking me down earlier.”

“It’s what I do,” he replied. Though Nate was only a little less decisive now than he’d been in Iraq, he was prone to getting lost in his head. “And besides, you don’t need it too often.”

“Debatable, but that’s not the point.” Nate shook his head, and looked up at Evan again. “I can’t wait for another year.”

 Evan kissed him in reply.


End file.
